Tom Williams It is fitting that Jackie Taylor opens the new space with their mega-hit from 2000, The Jackie Wilson Story. This is a bio-musical about the R & B singer Jackie Wilson who helped move pop music from Rhythm and Blues into soul. He recorded over 50 hit singles that spanned R&B, pop, soul, doo-wop and easy listening From 1957 through 1970. Wilson wooded audiences with his golden voice and his sexy dance that gave him the name “Mr. Excitement.”
With a workable book (by Joe DiPietro) and a bouncy score by Bon Jov’s founding member David Bryan, Memphis becomes a thrilling and most entertaining high-energy Broadway musical in years! Memphis grabs us from the start with a high energy score of early rock rhythms, Memphis- style blues, toe-tapping R & B and soulful ballads as well as country style songs propel us through the story of how a young illiterate white cracker DJ want-a-be Huey Calhoun’s (the super-talented Bryan Fenkart) love for ‘Black music’ motivates him to make his passions public to all the folks of Memphis.
The Christmas Schooner is a wonderful holiday family show filled with empathetic characters, a warm spirit, and a nice lesson of giving that is wrapped up in a ‘feel-good’ musical honoring the human spirit. This sweet show sings marvelously, contains humor and lovable characters. The enhanced music soars to the beautiful singing that rings to the rafters
The key element that makes this theatrical event so noteworthy is that Kane’s amazing classical acting training together with his expert articulation and enunciation and his ability to makes us ‘see’ each character whether it be Achilles, Agamemnon, Patroclus or King Priam. Kane’s fabulous performance gets aid from Todd Rosenthal’s large bomber-out cement bunker set and from Keith Parham’s riveting lighting and from Andre Pluess’ eerie sound
We meet the Bunker clan and follow them through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day as the bicker, drunk and eat their way through the holidays. Filled with date and British holiday references, Season’s Greeting is a standard dysfunctional holiday family comedy very similar to fare we see on the BBC.
The Caretaker is an “actor’s play” that needs strong nuanced performances and director Ron OJ Parson has found three from Chicago’s “A” list to people The Caretaker. From the stoic Aston nimbly played by Anish Jethmalani to the manic fast-talking Mick ,played with verbal prowess by Kareem Bandealy, to the complex and contradictory Davis played richly (and humorously) by WilliamJ. Norris, Pinter’s classic is sure in good hands.
She walked onto the stage swathed in sheer black, with matching black drapes hanging from the rafters, drifting through the smoke and light like a raven: cunning, cocksure, alluring. Immediately the deep thundering of bass toms filled the room, as if Glasvegas were playing a rave in Detroit. The sound of electric organ floated through the air and an acoustic guitar brought an earthiness that grounded the otherwise largely electronic aesthetic. Then Lykke Li opened her mouth and it sounded as if Fiona Apple met Joan of Arc on the stake.
The play is a mixture of styles containing a gay relationship, family quarrels plus the haunting effects of bird obsession turned into a religion featuring a gay professional hockey player who loves ballet. This enchanting work is a mixture of hilarity and heartbreak that challenges the normal conventions of storytelling. It works because of the passion and intensity of the characters.
As performed, Let My People Come! has some funny and titillating moments but they were too few. Some of the girls sang off key, some screamed, with many of the ensemble singing weirdly flat. The non-sing bits and sketches suffered from being bland.
Much of the show involves Star Wars inside jokes and screaming and predictable corn-ball humor that we’ve seen too many times on TV sitcoms. There is little to laugh at here and we quickly tired of the characters. Max in particular grates as he screams and nerds-out so often that I wanted to hit him with a slick!